Nike Brings “Just Do It” Into the Social Media Age

2013 marks the 25th anniversary of Nike’s timeless “Just Do It” slogan, which means it’s perfect time to construct a new marketing campaign around reintroducing the concept to the world of social media, complete with a #JustDoIt hashtag. While the slogan never really went away, it certainly hasn’t been the prominent tagline in Nike’s commercials as of late. That, however, is currently in the process of being changed, at least for the time being, and to celebrate, Nike introduced a new commercial that brings the slogan back, which can be seen at the top.

Narrated by Bradley Cooper, the “let’s bring ‘Just Do It’ back” advertisement never actually has Cooper saying the words, but after LeBron get through dunking the crowd into hysteria and walks off, the slogan that many of us grew up with jumps of the screen. See for yourself:

When you consider how marketing is done in the social media age, however, a simple commercial is not enough. Your audience must be interacted with in such a way where they feel like they are apart of the team, instead of simply another potential Nike consumer. This, of course, means social media engagement. Proving that they understand how much people like to share their new purchases, Nike introduced a new hashtag for those who are eager to show the world their new running shoes; #JustDoIt, naturally enough.

As you might expect, Nike’s Facebook header image has also been changed to reflect their new focus. It’s probably worth noting that the Facebook post announcing that particular change had over 25,000 likes. One wonders if liking Facebook statuses is part of Nike’s “Just Do It” mantra. As for the #JustDoIt hashtag proliferation, while there are quite a few posts that have the non-hashtag version of the phrase, it’s not being done in a manner that reflects Nike. Instead, it’s more like “most people just do it for attention” or something similar, like teenage girls begging Luke Brooks to follow them (Just do it, Luke!!! Follow me!!! You’re my baby!!!).

It should be noted that Nike posted the commercial on YouTube today (8/21/2013), and it has already gained over 65,000 views. With that in mind, expect to see an increase of the #JustDoIt hashtag use.